Modern economies increasingly depend on a variety of user devices that facilitate financial transactions, or the exchange of legal tender for goods or services. Prominent among these devices are credit cards and debit cards. These cards include numerical information such as an account number representing a user's credit or banking account, as well as textual information that may indicate, as an example, the identity of the user, the identity of the creditor or banker entity. Other devices used for facilitating financial transactions include wireless handheld devices, which may store such numerical and textual information in the device's memory, and transmit such information at the point of sale to execute the financial transaction.
A problem with the above financial transaction devices is that their numerical and/or textual information may be easily compromised, that is, easily obtained by an unauthorized third party (i.e. fraudsters). Once compromised, the third party may execute a number of unauthorized and highly damaging financial transactions, and often go undetected for a long period of time. Further damaging is that often financial devices are compromised in mass leading to mistrust in the financial network and huge financial losses for the financial institutions that utilize these devices.